(Yicai Global) March 26 -- Amazon Web Services, the world’s biggest cloud services provider, plans to expand its facilities in China to meet strong demand as the pandemic spurs the internet economy.

AWS, a unit of the US tech giant, unveiled its China business strategy in Beijing yesterday. The plans included the second-phase expansion of a data center project in China’s northwest Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, with the size of its new facilities 1.3 times that of the first phase. AWS’ data center in Beijing will also make a third zone available later this year. AWS did not disclose the budget.

The market for public cloud services has been fueled by video-streaming, gaming and e-commerce amid the pandemic. Demand for AWS China’s services is growing rapidly, both from local clients and foreign customers entering the market, Gu Fan, its general manager of cloud services product management, told Yicai Global.

China’s cloud computing market reached USD32.9 billion in 2019, and will expand to more than USD100 billion by 2024, according to a report released last month by international data consultancy IDC.

AWS accounts for more than 30 percent of the global market for cloud services, but ranks behind local companies in China, including Alibaba Cloud Computing and Tencent Cloud, in terms of business volume, according to publicly available information.

In addition to AWS, Microsoft is also increasing its investment in China’s cloud computing market. The US company announced earlier this month that it would add new data hubs in China. These are expected to open next spring, effectively doubling the service capacity of Azure, its smart cloud platform.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Peter Thomas